At the bustling local market we had a bowl of noodles which was as bland as any food can get. Imitating the locals, I added spoonfuls of spices,
herbs, chillis, sources, pickles, seeds, onions and stirred them altogether. Then
I remembered another line from another novel; unsophisticated food may not have
layers of flavour, but as in life, we add what we want and simply taste it all.
Banana plantations, pineapple plantations, tea plantations, peanuts,
maize, rice fields… it was like a biology class field trip. We then crossed
woods and forests and hiked from a Ha Ni village to a Dai village – I
definitely have not done anything like this since the Amazon. Chickens and pigs
ranged freely. This was one amazing day of people watching.
